Memo to Spyker: Bring Back the Saab Sonett

Spyker has saved Saab from the great wrecking yard in the sky, now that shareholders have approved a deal to buy the automaker from General Motors. This is a good thing, and we hope it works out for the best. GM never seemed quite sure what to do with Saab, which is a bit quirky (in a good way). Spyker has its own quirks, so it should jell quite nicely with a car company that used to mount the ignition switch on the floor.

Now that Spyker’s calling the shots, we have a simple suggestion:

Bring back the Saab Sonett.

It’s a natural path to follow, given Spyker’s high-performance heritage and Saab’s past success with rallying. Throw in the retro fad and the push to go green and it makes perfect sense.

The Sonett speaks perfectly to Spyker’s racing heritage. As anybody who’s had to race, or worse, rally against one — and we have — can tell you, they’re tough cars to beat. Sturdy, small and light, they’re great handlers. They had a V4 engine hanging out up front that gave amazing amounts of traction in nasty conditions (mud, dirt, snow, gravel, the usual for rallies). And since they weighed about as much as a stack of business cards thanks to their rather attractive fiberglass bodywork, Sonetts could also be formidable on the right road course as well.

So why make a modern version? There’s a bunch of reasons.

First off, look at the success other companies have had doing modern interpretations of their old designs. Volkswagen, arguably, started the craze with the Beetle. BMW’s had a hit with the Mini. Fiat upped the ante with the adorable 500, which Fiat has been selling like Gucci sells shoes and is finally bringing to America via Chrysler. And someone ask Mazda how much money it’s made with the incredibly awesome Miata, which is nothing more than a Lotus Elan that starts reliably, has functioning electrical system and doesn’t mark its territory with oil.

What’s more, Saab, and Spyker, need a fun, cheap, entry-level car. What Saab currently offers is plenty impressive, true, but a new Sonett would be both impressive and fun. Never underestimate fun as a way to help you sell the rest of your brand. It might also bring younger buyers into showrooms.

Finally, a new Sonett could give Spyker some green cred — or at least help offset the carbon footprint of its other cars — if it hews closely to the original. Make it small and it will be efficient. The original used fiberglass body panels, and the new one could too. Even steel could be used without sacrificing light weight — just look at, say, the first-gen Honda CRX. Better yet, make the panels out of lightweight recycled plastic over an aluminum chassis. Spyker wouldn’t have to go with a V4 (though the thought of the engine from the new Honda VRF1200 is intriguing); a conventional four-banger would do the trick. A 1.4-liter with a turbo and direct injection would provide a nice mix of efficiency and performance.

So what would it look like? Around 2,200 pounds, 160 horsepower and a base price in the 24K range sounds about right. Throw in optional light racks that can bolt onto the front and modern versions of Halda trip calculators that can screw into the dash in front of the navigator’s chair and Spyker would have a lead pipe with which to bludgeon the competition on the rally course.

All we ask is that the master cylinder doesn’t leak onto the floorboard.